Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-11-14
A GOOD LIBRARY.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THE
MAN WHO READS.

The First Law in Selecting Books-A
Library should Grow with the Mind.
Keep Your school Books-Light Litera-
| ture.
| Thr first law in selecting books is, am
sure, to buy along the line of your special
work. | do not say in the line for that is
| precisely what is not wanted. What we want
| is not to be told what we can see or find out
for ourselves, but what will enable us to see
more broadly than our separate experience
| would lead us to see. Books, while not lead
ing us away from sure and special lines of
life work, should keep us from narrowing
ourselves into grooves
The second law is to buy books, in the main,
as we need them. A library should grow
| with the mind These two rules can be Illus
trated together. We will suppose a mans
special line is anthropology. Plainly he
must also be good student of history He
must also be well acquainted with recent
biological researches-which involve paleon-
tology and zoology, at least as far as results
of investigation go He will not have gone
far before evolution, as scientific problem,
!
he finds himself involved in ancient religious
theories and comparative theology. | need
not carry the process farther, but l say his
library should be o. a working library along
this line, and t2) his books should be bought
as needed.
The possession of large number of books
is not the possession of a library. Books
however inherently valuable under certain
circumstances, under other circumstances be
come lumber. 1t is like thousand acre farm
of which only ten acres are worked, whilt
the owner lives in a bit of howell 1t is i'm
possible to express too strongly the close re
lation that mind growth should bear t,
: library growth. 1t tshould be like the growtf
| of bone to a mans flesh.
No one should sell or give away his book
that have been used and seem no longer need
3 full Especially should old school books an,
:, college books he sacredly kept To no othe
# books do we sustain SO intimate personal re
/ lationslip. We shall surely miss the yer,
r copy of Horace and of De Amicitia that W
grew familiar with, and some day will desir
to turn to a passage iii "Ars Poetica," o
''Via Sacra," and it will not be quite tn
ic same as when we read it in sophomore Yea
L. on the log in the glen with Classmate Stevens
y / give every boy and girl warning not to par
e. with their text books in literature an
classics Even my old Webster's speIlin
- book would now be treasure to me Ar
z such books part of library! Most truly
{ yes. They are the very essential part of
D. hbrary-the tools we have used as we cam
H. along-but tools that never wear out.
of Perhaps careful distinction should /
l ba ,1,7a
those in the library proper; for each ma
= should have his library, and each famil
\ should have its library. The latter should |
built on less restricted plan; yet certainl
under careful rules A home library shoul,
above all, have an atmosphere of refinemel
and good society. 1t should not admit a 10
bred book any more than our drawing room
. should admit the familiarity of low brt
people An hour spent in it should proiu
ne the refreshment that comes from a soci
IS hour with witty and good friends,
a really good home library must inclu,
. rescripts; it is sometimes pity-oftener nc
There are not 100 good authors in general /
~ erature that cannot be wisely compresse
1t will not pay to read them through. The
"Half Hours with the best authors are ne
.rl essary and valuable But when it comes
er- history am not SO sure And as for ''Bea
ss ties of Ruskin. beauties of Goethe ct
lVp etc let MS burn them. If cannot 90 into
.nst a. rose garden for myseIf, | will thank Won
n n bunch of flowers; but for you to run abe
of me with your nose and demand that
. shall smell over apain your bouauet am
Fl cl;,ed tn select for myself
n A COL Iitr,r., crows as o1r snuls GROW
Es uidens ont its sympatLies and gets a Iart
opaool But at the same time n slo,gbi
W - W. o,,Iv GROW we'll .s va can
~ sr,n Some nao,ia have ,,reat difficulty
aui d,.ine, m anything they eonally fail to gro
A tha+ i 10 anIor,e Sncb ar. vonr ralipi,
ri h;,,ots / hste IN sAe a man who reads
al ,,.hor ~, Al, dosa--opa dosa a d.v. r
"a a. dav--tbe way my e-rsndmotbor +.
III hor Rihle and ms many take il vet hut
= s,,allsr nellets have n friend who car,
Y .l,ol-o,rearn in his pocket and bolts n r
v. t;on earh dav He resembles for all the VIC
n a pumn that is clogced up from having
chain RIM too deem. Shakespeare has alw
-, to,, dean for tbe follow and he is n